"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation.

Thursday, March 2, 2017

My thoughts today are about building the fence at the border. I will share my farm story as I know it applies to the current events circling the border fence.

When Bill and I bought our little corner of the world we had grand ideas. We bought a property that was not fenced and we thought that's okay as we can build pens for the critters and all will be fine. We built goat pens, sheep pens, chicken coops, and a duck pond. We built a place for the annual cow to live out her last days and we even fenced an area for the garden.

We were naive. You see, just because we live in the middle of nowhere it does not mean that those unwelcome won't stop by. We had trouble immediately with the two legged varmints. Seemed like the back of our farm was a place that people liked to hike through. I am being very kind. These people weren't hiking, they seemed very unkempt and worried me as I was here during the day with the kids alone.

Thanks to Craigs*list, free-cycle, online yard sales and people we knew we were able to get together enough for our fence. Fortunately, the railroad sold off many railroad ties and those became solid corners. Now we closed off our little farm. The fence may not look beautiful and the gate is a salvaged gate but it is perfect for the job it needs to perform. The two legged critters stop at the fence line and walk around. Now a simple fence may not have successfully done this,

but we added a few dogs to the mix. The Anatolian Shepherd/Great Pyrenees mix and the Great Pyrenees are excellent livestock dogs and their sheer size worries those that come to the gate. Snake dog is part Doberman and who knows what else, and she also ensures that the fences are not breached.

The four legged critters that do not care about the fences have come across a few times. Zephaniah made sure that this was a poor choice and we have not have a big cat on the property in a year.

We tried to live on a farm without fences. We tried to make it work to keep this rural land still in its raw state. The problem with this was major as moving to this farm house and living here was not enough of a message that this is someone's home stay off. A concern for Bill was even more grave. He did not wish for his family to be out in the middle of nowhere and have people think that this would be the perfect cover for mayhem~

With the fence and the chained gate folks stop at the fence line. Yep. Seems so simple but its true. For those that think it is fine to climb a fence and proceed onto the property, they have the dogs to worry about.

If they make it past the dogs, they have the locks on the farmhouse. I lock the doors even knowing I have the two other security measures. We have more than these things to ensure that our little corner of the world remains a safe place for the farm family to live, for us to raise critters, for us to have friends over all the while still part of the rural landscape of this county, of New Mexico, of the United States.

I am not against Americans. I am not against predators.

I am for living my life with the rights granted me under the US Constitution as this is the country I live in. The fence is our way of ensuring that we keep everything on the up and up.

This is what the border fence will do. We will still have immigration. We will still have visitors. The border fence will just keep things on the up and up.